The Man with Hypnotic Powers Doesn't Hold Back the Second Time Around - Chapter 103

Elias had never been lucky — not once, not ever.Abandoned at birth, raised in suffering, and tormented by a life that never gave him a break, Elias trudged through existence like a ghost wearing human skin. By the age of thirty-two, even his heart gave out, quietly and without drama — just like everything else in his life. It simply… stopped.But death wasn’t the end.Instead, Elias found himself face-to-face with a stunning goddess — the Keeper of Fate. And for the first time, someone finally told him the truth: his entire life had been a mistake. A cosmic error. His Karma, meant for another, had been switched at birth, condemning him to a life of endless misfortune.To make amends, Fate offered him a second chance — a new life, with the luck he had been denied.With a single pull from the divine card deck, Elias drew the Legendary Extraction Talent — an ability that allows him to absorb powers, skills, and even laws of the world itself.From a broken man to a rising force, Elias will forge a new path.He will extract the power of heaven and earth.He will defy fate and ascend to the apex.And this time… luck is finally on his side.

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

Death is sometimes not the end!
Dead prison!
This is a magical prison. It has the ability to draw the souls of the dead people of the world, and it also enables people to gain the ability of the souls of the dead.
When Qin Song woke up, he was shocked to find that he had come to the world of One Piece, and even more surprised that he found a prison in his body…..

- Description from Uukanshu

Yuan Xi had been the secretary for Gu Hanchen for five years, working tirelessly without a single day off. Not only was she overworked like a horse, but she was also slandered by Gu Hanchen's fiancee and her friend, Miss Chu, who accused Secretary Yuan of delusionally hoping to turn from a sparrow into a phoenix and become the wife of President Gu. No longer able to tolerate the treatment, Yuan Xi handed in her resignation letter. After resigning, the once overburdened secretary surprisingly turned out to be the legitimate heiress of the wealthiest family in Jiangcheng, the Chu family! Back at the Chu household, Yuan Xi discovered that the family had taken in an adopted daughter, Chu Yan, who had been standing in for her. The false heiress was bright and unrestrained, rightfully considered the unrivaled young mistress of Jiangcheng. Even after the return of the true heiress, Chu Yan remained the celebrated young mistress while Yuan Xi was invariably seen as a mere shadow when compared to Chu Yan's splendid life. Yuan Xi's husband did not even own a house in the center of Jiangcheng. In contrast, the impostor Chu Yan was set to marry into one of Jiangcheng's top four wealthy families, the Bo family. Everyone in Jiangcheng ridiculed Yuan Xi for not having a life as fortunate as the false heiress, nor a discerning eye. That was until the day when Mi Chen was listed on the stock market, and Yuan Xi swiftly rose above her own father to become the new wealthiest person in Jiangcheng. On the day Yuan Xi's child was born, the established noble Huo family from A City announced with great fanfare the joy of welcoming a new grandson... Yuan Xi had always thought that her marriage to Huo Shiyen was merely a shotgun wedding, and that Huo Shiyen had someone else he considered his childhood sweetheart and sweetheart under the moonlight. Only later did she realize that she was, in fact, his cherished childhood love.